For a short lived second on Thursday, Aaron Rodgers and the Jets confirmed everybody what rejuvenation seems like.
After a rocky few opening collection right through a scrimmage at the Jets’ first day of coaching camp, Rodgers fired the ball to second-year vast receiver Garrett Wilson on a snappy out path. Wilson hauled within the cross, stumbled in short, then scampered up the sideline for a wholesome acquire, drawing cheers from his energized teammates.
It was once any such offensive dynamism the Jets have sorely overlooked for years because the workforce has struggled to discover a long-term solution at quarterback, the sport’s maximum necessary place. The addition of Brett Favre in 2008 did not ship a playoff look, and early-round draft choices after him introduced combined effects.
But the coming of Rodgers, a four-time most dear participant, brings heightened expectancies this season — and an unfamiliar stage of pleasure round a workforce whose identify has been synonymous with ineptitude for greater than a decade.
“There’s a lot of positivity around here, which I think is a good thing,” Rodgers mentioned after apply.
Following a long negotiation, the Jets agreed to obtain Rodgers in a industry with the Green Bay Packers on April 24, including a degree of spectacle that has trailed the workforce. The league scheduled the Jets in 5 prime-time matchups this season, up from one look in 2022, together with a Week 1 contest in opposition to the Buffalo Bills on “Monday Night Football.” Camera crews from “Hard Knocks,” the HBO documentary collection, will observe the workforce all over the season, and the Jets will headline the NFL’s first Black Friday recreation, on Amazon.
The consideration is a a ways cry from expectancies forward of final season. The Jets were given out to a shocking 6-3 get started in the back of a extremely ranked protection sooner than shaky quarterback play derailed newfound hopes. Zach Wilson, the no. 2 general pick out in 2021, was once benched in desire of backup quarterback Mike White, and the workforce went 1-7 to near the season.
By including Rodgers, the Jets sought to expedite an organizational rebuild. The workforce has nurtured younger ability, together with the reigning offensive and defensive freshmen of the yr, Garrett Wilson and cornerback Sauce Gardner.
“When you have so many great players on rookie deals, it’s pretty exciting knowing you can do something, you’ve got a good window,” Rodgers mentioned. “It’s not just a one-year thing where you can be competitive, which is fun.”
As gamers reported to camp on Wednesday, some spoke of attaining the Super Bowl, a lofty function for a franchise that final made the postseason in 2010.
“Bringing a guy like him into the building just excites everyone in general because the résumé he has, the character he is, the guy that he is, that brings a spark to everybody,” mentioned defensive take on Quinnen Williams, who mentioned he had already pelted Rodgers with questions on the most productive defensive gamers he had ever confronted.
But even with Rodgers’ arrival, there’s reason why for any optimism to be certified.
Rodgers, who turns 40 in December, is up in opposition to soccer’s age clock: Few quarterbacks — excluding Tom Brady — have excelled at that degree in their careers. And after successful back-to-back MVP awards in 2020 and 2021, Rodgers had the worst season of his profession as a full-time starter, posting his second-highest interception general and his lowest quarterback ranking since 2008.
Rodgers brings greater than only a Hall of Fame resume to the Jets. He drew complaint in 2021 for denouncing the league’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage after checking out sure for the coronavirus. Despite claiming sooner than the season that he have been “immunized” in opposition to the virus, Rodgers was once fined for violating league Covid-19 protocols for unvaccinated gamers through attending a Halloween birthday party.
The finish of Rodgers’ tenure in Green Bay was once additionally marred through his spats with coaches and workforce control over roster and play-calling selections, in addition to his public complaint of the Packers’ younger receivers.
So a ways, he mentioned, he’s satisfied along with his new workforce.
“There’s a lot of fun things that have come along with this time in my life, and I’m just enjoying every minute of it,” he mentioned on Thursday.
For their phase, the Jets seem to have attempted to construct the workforce in Rodgers’s symbol. They have Garrett Wilson, any such explosive younger vast receiver that Rodgers had complained about lacking in Green Bay. They introduced in a few of Rodgers’ pals and previous Packers teammates, like receivers Randall Cobb and Allen Lazard and offensive lineman Billy Turner, they usually employed Nathaniel Hackett, Rodgers’ offensive coordinator from 2019 to 2021, in the similar function.
Lazard, who performed 5 seasons with Rodgers in Green Bay and signed with the Jets in March, thinks he can lend a hand one of the workforce’s more youthful receivers, acknowledging that “the Aaron Rodgers offense” can provide a studying curve.
“When he’s on the field, the whole playbook’s open at any given time,” Lazard mentioned of Rodgers. “Even during Day 1 of practice, he might pull a signal, do something we’ve never talked about.”
It definitely would possibly not be what the Jets were used to.